In September last year, Ingka Investments reached an agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to acquire 49 per cent stake in these two PV projects. With a total output of 403 megawatts, this development ranks among the larger solar PV projects in the United States. Ingka Group took over the Utah solar PV project on December 31, last year, while the takeover of the Texas solar PV project concluded on March 31, 2020.
The completion of this transaction holds special significance for Ingka Group as it now produces more energy than it consumes. As of February, for the first time, the Ingka Group’s 12 months’ energy production had exceeded its 12 months of energy consumption. As new investments continue in Finland and the US, Ingka Group is working towards its target for production to exceed consumption.
Phasing out fossil fuel-based heating and cooling
IKEA has an ambition to become climate positive, reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits. By the fiscal year of 2025, Ingka Group aims to consume entirely renewable electricity in each of its 30 countries where it is present, focusing for the generation of renewable electricity onsite and offsite both on wind farms and utility-scale solar farms. The company is now working to ensure that its business is fully run on renewable energy with the aim of also consuming 100 per cent renewable electricity in its retail operations by 2025 and to phase out fossil fuel-based heating and cooling by 2030, while increasing energy efficiency.
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The Misae project in Texas, which produces 567 gigawatt hours of energy per annum, will be crucial in these plans. Ingka Group will now have access to the production of 277 gigawatt hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the consumption of more than 50 IKEA stores. Besides this, the Misae project has 823,228 panels of which Ingka Group will own 49 per cent, giving an equivalent number of over 400,00 additional panels owned by Ingka Group.
Future plans for Russia and China
“Since 2009, Ingka Group has invested close to 2.5 billion euros in renewable energy. For us, investing in renewable energy is a part of our asset management strategy, as it fully supports our sustainability commitments,” says Krister Mattsson, Managing Director Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group. “We plan to continue with our future investment strategy and are focusing on countries where we do not have large scale renewable energy production yet, such as Russia and China,” says Mattsson. (mfo)
